Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
Joe Rogan takes on a variety of complex topics, including taxes, but doesn’t understand how marginal taxes work, despite commenting on taxes over the years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoWpmZ1u1AQ
“Trump managed to garner 48% of the Latino vote compared to Harris’ 51% share and significantly jumped past the 36% clip that he got during in the 2020 presidential election.”
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“47% of naturalized citizens of all ethnic backgrounds voted for Trump in 2024, compared with 38% in 2020. In that same voting bloc 51% voted for Harris in 2024, a notable drop from the 59% who voted for Joe Biden in 2020.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/almost-50-latinos-voted-trump-002646745.html
Republicans/Trump frontloaded the start of popular items in the big bill, and delayed unpopular items until after midterms, making it harder for voters to know what the people they are voting for actually did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Urfjw2964
“Russia’s changing attack tactics are forcing Ukraine to adapt by making shorter defense lines and building low-rise strongpoints less visible to drones swarming the skies.
But the revamp is undermined by a chaotic approach to fortifying front lines, with very different approaches being used depending on local commanders. Tougher defense positions are also made much less effective by Ukraine’s chronic shortage of combat troops.
The change in fortification strategy is being driven by Russia dropping large formation attacks supported by armored vehicles in favor of much smaller units backed by drones, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said last week.
Ukraine is responding by building fortifications for ever smaller units — from battalions of about 500 troops to companies of about 100, and now for platoons of 20 to 50 soldiers.
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Previously, strong points used extensive trench networks from 2 to 5 kilometers in length. The new system uses smaller strongpoints with trench networks 60 to 70 meters long and equipped with mandatory anti-drone cover. “These are harder to detect and are effective in carrying out tasks of defense, deterrence, and delivering firepower, including against FPV drones,” Umerov said.
Behind that frontline defense, Ukraine is continuing to build two additional lines that include concrete tetrahedrons, also called dragon’s teeth, to hold off armored vehicles, minefields, foxholes, wooden and concrete trenches, anti-drone covers and nets.
“Fortification is not just about concrete and trenches — it is an adaptive engineering system that takes the enemy’s tactics into account and always serves one purpose: protecting our warriors. We monitor the process daily and reinforce the areas where it’s needed most,” Umerov said.
Earlier, fortifications were often built in open terrain to block Russian attacks using large numbers of armored vehicles. Now, they are built around forest belts, which have better camouflage.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-russia-drone-fortifications-frontline-defense/
“The megabill, which the president signed into law Friday, offers an unprecedented infusion of cash into the country’s immigration enforcement apparatus, but even Trump border czar Tom Homan acknowledges the administration has a great deal of work ahead, especially when it comes to fulfilling Trump’s pledge to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
“Look, this isn’t easy. Ten thousand ICE officers? Never happened before,” Homan told POLITICO on Friday. “But I’ll say this: It’s about time … with more money, we can do more.”
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With the new money, the Trump administration will focus on constructing more of the border wall and barriers, while beefing up technology that will allow agents to communicate with each other in cellular and radio dead zones, Homan said.
The administration will also move quickly to grow detention capacity, working with contractors to bring vacant prisons and facilities back online and build up soft-sided facilities like Florida did with “Alligator Alcatraz.”
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The administration has also been fielding contractor pitches on technology and other solutions to improve its targeting efforts — finding undocumented immigrants inside the country. Homan said the administration will also work with contractors to ramp up transportation and removal flights, while also potentially using them to fill jobs that don’t require a badge or a gun.
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Sandweg estimated deploying 10,000 new officers would take at least three years, and if the administration wants to get this done before Trump’s term ends, “you’re going to have to really push it to the limits in order to get them operational in this administration.”
That has him concerned that vetting standards could be lowered for speed, he said.
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The domestic policy bill also includes over $1 billion for the immigration court system to hire more judges and staff, but it’s unclear how quickly the administration can build out the courts, and whether it can move at a rate that can keep up with an increased pace of ICE arrests — or if the effort will ultimately result in longer detention time.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/05/trump-got-170-billion-for-immigration-now-he-has-to-enact-it-00439785
“The attack on the ship comes as Iranian-backed militias in Iraq are also suspected of numerous drone and missile attacks over the past two weeks.
An attack on a vessel in the Red Sea was reported on Sunday, which was the first attack there in months.
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The US launched airstrikes on the Houthis in mid-March. The airstrikes ended in April with some kind of a deal, and the Houthis appeared to stop attacks on ships.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/first-red-sea-naval-attack-190545338.html
“Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” includes a gift to millions of families: $1,000 in an investment account for every eligible newborn.
The new savings vehicles, akin to Individual Retirement Accounts, are designated for children who are U.S. citizens born from 2025 through 2028. In addition to the one-time government contribution, parents and others can chip in as much as $5,000 a year to the accounts, which beneficiaries can access at 18, with some constraints.
The seed money is a boon for recipients and will grow tax-deferred. Financial planners say parents and guardians might do better putting their money into existing investment vehicles such as a 529 plan, a savings plan designed to cover college expenses. But 529s are limited to education, while backers say the new accounts can help their recipients beyond college.
Republican lawmakers call the accounts “Trump accounts,” though the Senate’s plan to officially name them after the president did not make it to the final version of the legislation, which was signed Friday. They deliver on an idea that both Democrats and Republicans have floated for years: to invest money for all children at birth.
Withdrawals from a 529 are not subject to state or federal taxes as long as the funds go toward qualified education expenses – a feature the new investment accounts don’t share. And in the new accounts, parents’ deposits don’t qualify for a tax deduction, notes Greg Leiserson, a senior fellow at the Tax Law Center at New York University. “You have this very slight or minimal-to-nonexistent tax benefit,” he said. “What is the point here?”
Financial adviser Amy Spalding of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said she will continue to steer her clients to 529s. “It’s better from a tax standpoint,” Spalding said. “And there are more investment options. And then there’s a higher contribution limit.” (For 2025, a single person can deposit as much as $19,000 a year into a beneficiary’s 529, while married couples can contribute as much $38,000.)
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withdrawals will be taxed at typical income rates, not at the capital gains rate of a taxable brokerage account. “For most people, this is going to be worse than what they could do in a taxable account,” he said.
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The law requires the new investment accounts to track a U.S. stock index
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“If you’re saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to start school in the fall’ – if the market falls over the summer, the planning you were doing about how you were going to pay for college is totally messed up, because the money you thought would be there, isn’t.”
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account holders cannot touch the funds until they turn 18. After that, the rules are the same as those of an individual retirement account – withdrawals are taxed like income, plus an additional 10 percent tax penalty on any withdrawals before age 59½ except for certain qualified uses.
Those uses include paying for college, supporting themselves if they become disabled, or recovering from domestic abuse or a natural disaster. Beneficiaries also can withdraw as much as $10,000 to buy their first home, and up to $5,000 when they have a new baby themselves.
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Even one of the Trump accounts’ biggest proponents in Congress, Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), said in an interview that for many parents, the new account design offers more benefits for retirement than for college expenses.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kid-getting-trump-account-put-182354610.html
“Asked whether the U.S. would be flexible with any countries about on the July 9 deadline, Trump said, “Not really.”
“They’ll start to pay on Aug. 1,” he added. “The money will start to come into the United States on Aug. 1, OK, in pretty much all cases.”
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Tariffs are paid by importers — which can pass on part or all of the costs to consumers — and not necessarily by entities in the goods’ country of origin.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/treasury-secretary-says-countries-without-170129594.html
“the bill does not include a provision to eliminate federal income taxes on Social Security benefits.
“There is no provision in the budget bill that directly ‘eliminates’ or even reduces taxes on Social Security benefits,” Howard Gleckman, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, told the Washington Post.
Trump’s bill offers a tax deduction of $6,000 to seniors making up to $75,000 individually, or $150,000 on a joint return. The deduction is lowered for incomes above that level and axed for seniors with individual incomes of more than $175,000, or $250,000 jointly. However, the new deduction for seniors is set to expire within a couple of years. The median income for seniors in 2022 was about $30,000.”
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“Before the megabill’s passing, 64 percent of seniors receiving Social Security income paid no tax on their Social Security due to exemptions and deductions, according to an estimate by Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers. Under Trump’s megabill, 88 percent won’t be paying.”
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the rise is due to the bill’s increase in “the standard deduction for seniors, which, as a result, reduces the number of seniors who will pay taxes on their Social Security benefits.”
…the new legislation will provide limited benefits for lower-income seniors because they already pay less in taxes.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/social-security-no-taxes-message-154817110.html
People are dying because they are not getting medicines that U.S. Aid used to bring them. Many of these medicines were already donated, but they go expired because U.S. Aid, who would be delivering them, was gutted by Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpaQ7PquxTg